Never Say Never Get Busted Again

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Barry Cooper , a former Texas narcotics cop who has apparently not only come out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, he's putting out a video called "Never Get Busted Again," which claims to offer tips to drug offenders on how to avoid the police.

Last week, the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- whom I've worked with in the past and found to be professional, reputable, and pretty hard-core -- disassociated itself from Cooper . The reason stated in the group's press release is that LEAP can't advocate a video encouraging criminal activity, even if said activity violates laws LEAP considers immoral.

But conspiracy theorists take note. The email LEAP's media department sent me about Cooper included the following addendum to the press release:

A lesser reason, not specifically cited by the LEAP Board, but nonetheless felt by many of the active members, is that until we learn more about Cooper, his project should be viewed with a very wary eye by anyone who is an illicit drug user that may buy his video for educational purposes.

Cooper is at this time only accepting credit card payments. In our (specifically me, Steve Heath) humble opinion, this raises red flags. Credit card payments remove the possibility for anonymity on the part of the buyer and also potentially expose the buyer to investigation of his bank activity on the not so off-chance that Cooper's project is in fact an undercover investigation aimed at identifying users of illicit drugs.

Make of that what you will. I don't know anything about Cooper, other than what was in the news stories about him when the video was released. Seems like an awfully elaborate setup for a sting operation. Of course, we are talking about the drug war, here. Stranger things have happened .